[music playing]
The Wakiva River, just north of Orlando,
is one of the few remaining near pristine riverine systems
in central Florida, and is a major tributary
of the St. John's River, which flows north to Jacksonville.
As urban growth began to impact the river basin,
citizens became very concerned about the future
and quality of the river.
Pat Hardin, who resides along the river,
and is an active member of the Friends of the Wakiva,
and her teenage grandson, Erin Colburn, explain.
Friends started as a group of friends in the late '70s.
We were successful in getting the river
designated and outstanding Florida water.
It's a Florida state canoe trail.
It's a Florida scenic and wild river.
In the last couple of years, it was made
a national wild and scenic river.
The Wakiva Springs is the state park,
and it has been our mission to try and protect the Wakiva
and the things that make it the Wakiva,
as well as educate people to its value.
People think only of it as environment
and maybe snakes and critters to them,
but it also has a great economic value to the area.
The river is one of the most beautiful places in Florida.
There's no other place that I've been that's like this.
In the morning, you look out through the trees,
which looks like a rainforest.
You see the steam rising off the river,
and you can just go outside and you feel the humidity
in the air, which in the morning usually isn't uncomfortable.
During the day, it's just a fun place to go out
and forget about everything and do nothing.
An extensive floodplain of hardwood forest,
approximately three miles wide in some areas,
provides natural habitat for a diverse array of wildlife,
including several designated as endangered,
threatened, or of special concern.
The wood stalk, an endangered species, nests and cypress trees
within the aquatic preserve,
and is often observed feeding in certain shallow areas
of the river.
The little blue heron, tri-colored heron and limpkin,
species of special concern, nest and forage
along the Wakiva banks.
I'm a second-generation Floridian, this part of Florida,
is a slice of what Florida used to be.
It has the wildlife and the birds and just the beauty
that I remember in Florida as a child.
Few know of places like this,
whether it's a spring-fed river, a lake,
a piece of woods, you really care for it,
then get involved in protecting it
because you wait until it's threatened,
it may be too late.
And only if we raise our voices will we be heard.
The Wakiva River watershed with its upland, wetland
and riverine habitats provide an important wildlife corridor,
connecting thousands of acres of publicly owned
conservation lands to the Ocala National Forest.
This is my favorite place to be.
We have to take care of what ***'s given us.
Once it's gone, it's not coming back.
If we don't take care of our environment around us,
it'll be like the movies you see of the future.
You see minority report.
Everything was one city.
You have to go way out into the middle of nowhere
just to get into a little country home.
That wouldn't be too fun.
It's a place to get away from the hurry of the world.
It's a place to find quietness of soul, to calm your spirit.
It's important for the wildlife, the animals and plants
that I think the good Lord gave us,
and that we should have good stewardship of.
And without these kinds of places,
and without some of these places being connected,
all these beautiful gifts will disappear.
There are many unique places found throughout the state
that are found nowhere else on earth.
By protecting these special places,
we also protect ways of life that are connected
to the land and the sea.
(upbeat music)
During my career, I've interviewed hundreds of Floridians.
Like the aquifer flowing beneath our feet,
their memories run deep,
telling of a strong connection to this place they call home.
There are so many rich stories in this state,
and every region has its own unique culture.
In the second feature length documentary I produced,
Appalachicola River and American Treasure,
I had the opportunity to interview
the oyster men and crabbers of Appalachicola.
This is their story.
(upbeat music)
I'd love to wake up every morning,
watch that sunrise over the ocean,
and watch it set every day,
and just be in control of your own life,
and not have any telephones or any outside influence
other than Mother Nature to guide you.
I've had several different careers in my life,
always come back to fishing.
It's always my family for generations,
and I did two years in the Persian Gulf,
and I've worked for the Navy Base,
and I've owned my own companies,
and always come back to fishing.
Everybody thinks it's easy going to fish and have fun,
but when you get them out there,
they realize how hard it is,
and all the rough weather you can fish in.
My granddaddy come over here from Norway,
and been fishing ever since, and I love it, you know.
Of course, the laws are making it
where I don't love it no more.
Well, usually you can make a living around here.
You have to worry about all these here,
marine trolls, and game wardens, and inspector.
Nobody can tell me what to do,
how long I can day or when I got to come back
and not my own boss.
I mean, they've been cutting us back,
but now we're starting to see results
from all the new restrictions and regulations
where the fish are coming back,
and they're regulating the long-line boats
and other boats that were killing off mass quantities.
The law has their way with the angle of being in a fisherman,
or my big charter fishing.
That's running out law all commercial fishing.
I got a son, he's a system manager
of the coastal builders down here,
and he's got oyster license, he's got fishing license.
He plays your fishes, but he sees there's no future in it,
there's no insurance.
Yeah, I hate to see it go,
because there's still people like me
that want to work on the water,
but they ain't going to be able to.
They can't make a living for their family,
they can't stay on it.
Well, when I was younger, we were living in a cariboule,
and we didn't have others to fish with.
We would pull them and put in stock of cariboule
for a dog out of the harbor, two boats roaring over there.
And then we'd straighten them nets out.
Some days we'd catch 300 pounds, four or 500 pounds.
The gas is about 13 to 15 percent of gallons in.
You used to take a hundred traps
and catch 800,000 pound of crab today.
Now you take a hundred traps,
you might catch a box, a box and a half.
They want to buy all of this out.
Put up 13 townhouses right here on this water
and in touch it goes to a hot tube of these local people,
living these smaller houses.
They won't be able to pay it.
Don't make me feel good for the people themselves.
♪♪
I went by a truck right here,
50-some years, and did everything that's on.
Was you there?
When they crewed the seat by...
In the summer of 2005,
fishermen of Apalachicola had more to worry about
than rampant development,
gentrification and the legal restrictions
on their livelihood.
Hurricane Dennis roared into the bay
with a 10-foot tidal surge.
♪♪
♪ Was you there? When they crewed the seat by my lord? ♪
♪ Was you there when they crewed the seat by my lord? ♪
♪♪
Sometimes it makes me want to tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble,
but you're there when they crewed by my lord.
♪♪
Native Americans were the first to feast upon these succulent oysters.
You can tell by the huge mounds of shells along the river
and on the barrier islands.
Five hundred years ago, the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca
gave thanks for the same.
After a long day's journey,
we arrived at the bay opening out on to the ocean.
It was the hour of vespers and low.
We discovered great quantities of oysters.
The men were delighted and gave thanks to our lord
for having led us to this place.
♪♪
♪♪
The people who have been here the longest in Florida
are native Americans, the Mikasuki, Crete, Seminole and other tribes.
They have a deep understanding of the land and have much to teach us.
One person I interviewed was Leroy Hennejo Osceola.
When I first approached Leroy for a video interview,
he told me he was not interested in being interviewed by me.
When I mentioned that I grew up Amish, sharing with him
that I understood what it was like living in a closed society,
he agreed to share his story with me.
The cultural and spiritual identity of the Osceola family
and other Mikasuki and Seminole people
is embedded in the big cypress swamp landscape.
♪♪
Leroy Hennejo Osceola,
a descendant of the famous chief and his wife Cassandra,
are raising their family in big cypress.
I've been teaching them since they were little.
They know how to do certain things.
I'm getting ready to teach them how to do the silver now.
But they do the carving and they can build the houses of the cheekies,
stuff like that.
So it's pretty good because their relatives that live on the reservation,
they don't know how to do much.
They don't really have any chance to learn because everything is given to them.
We're trying to keep our identity strong so outside people don't tell us
and come to us and tell us who we are.
There's just a handful of us now because everybody migrated into other areas.
Well, I worry about how the kids or the next generations are going to survive
and that's what I think about.
♪♪
That's how we were taught when we were little.
And that's how we've always been taught, my grandparents and my fathers and all that.
That's what we live by.
In addition to being an oil painter, Oceola is also a traditional craftsman.
In his gallery on the Tamiami Trail, he creates silver jewelry and wooden sculptures.
I do sterling silver jewelry.
I used to see the pictures of people wearing them and stuff like that.
And my mother had pieces that her father had done.
So that's where it gave me the idea to start it up again because nobody does
anything like that anymore.
If you see one of the photographs of one of my grandfathers, Chief Oceola,
he's wearing them.
You can't forget where you come from.
So to me, it's part of history, what I'm leaving behind.
But I can say these words because I live out here.
This is my land.
I'm not some foreigner coming here and, you know, making up stuff.
Growing up on a dairy farm, I knew that milk and cows is hard work.
It's twice a day, every day, and you don't take off for holidays.
When I got to know the Florida ranchers and cowboys, I had a first-hand
appreciation of how difficult working with livestock can be.
But I also understood that this work gave them a deep appreciation of the land
and how to be caretakers of their heritage.
Alex Johns is a salmon old rancher and one of the keepers of his tribes oral history.
The Indians that were here, they actually started to steward the cattle,
learn how to ride the horses.
I do know that the cow was looked upon as the return of the buffalo or the bison
in this area when they showed back up because they were on the verge of being extinct.
There was a woodland bison that lived in the south-eastern area.
And when the cow returned, that was like *** bringing a gift back to natives
to replace the buffalo.
And that's why natives embraced them so much.
The Seminoles in their early allies of Mikosuki have hunted and herded cattle
and farmed in Florida since the 16th century.
They view their cattle business as an extension of their respect for the land.
My dad was on in this position way back when and my family has always been involved with cattle.
So I grew up around it, threw up in the business and just took a liking to it as a kid
and just decided to make a career out of it.
So it's just in our blood.
It's not the biggest money maker in the world, but we love it.
It keeps the land in a natural state.
In the cattle, they work to maintain the resource and keep it in the same state
that it's always been probably for 10,000 years.
And we just try to use the land for what it's best suited for.
Cattle seems to work the best for us.
It's just who we are and who we're going to continue to be.
So as long as there's a symbol, there'll probably be a cow.
[music]
Many of the cow hunters are not only good at working cattle,
but they wear other hats as well.
For instance, Tony Morell is at his best educating folks.
Every state has got history.
You know, and they should be proud of it.
Me, my heritage is a Florida cracker, and I'm proud of it.
And every change I get to tell somebody, everybody in the world,
wanted us to come to a living history presentation for them, you know,
and all out of state, being in Washington, D.C. doing it,
to a division of tourism, doing living history.
And, you know, it kind of blossomed from that state park service for me
getting out and being able to share with the general public.
[music]
K.J. Smith is a whip maker.
[music]
Ben Bell and cow whips a long, long time.
My granddaddy started it.
And my dad, of course, they done it out of buckskin back then.
And I gave us a ranch, had a ranch job,
and got to where I was selling these things more than just friends.
It seemed like every time I turned around, one of my buddies wanted one of his,
buddy.
cow boss, Mike Wilder, makes saddles.
I guess my clientele was always mainly been a working guy.
And then I learned, if I don't hear from them, they're satisfied.
A lot of times, I don't hear them, you know?
They're not hear from them for therapy.
I feel they say, I ask them how they feel, they say, oh, I like it, I love it.
Cow hunter Billy Davis makes spurs.
The spurs that I make are custom made.
We can make any kind of spurs that you want to.
But I'd rather make a spurs that's going to last forever.
Cow hunter Eldon Lux paints.
You know, vegetation, landscapes are unique.
And he particularly enjoys painting scenes with the cracker cow.
They're great, you know?
I mean, it adds color, it adds pizzazz, you know?
The horns are dramatic.
One of those keepers of the land is Carrie Leitzy.
The Leitzy family's history in ranching dates back to the early 1700s.
And early is still a part of the daily ranching routine.
A typical day for me is to get up at 3.30 or 4 o'clock in the morning.
And normally go to the horse barn, saddle the horses, make our plans,
go over the schedule with the cow crew.
There's all kind of Florida ranchers because there's someone that just bought an investment land
and he's running cattle on it.
And then there's the pioneer ranchers that's been in it from generation to generation.
And they have a love for the land and they care for the wildlife
and they want to do the cow part right.
With so many long days and hard work,
you might think that these cowboys wouldn't have the time or the energy for fun.
But you'd be wrong.
Yeah, we don't do an *** car and we don't usually go to basketball games.
We do rodeo.
[Music]
Working on documentaries, you have the opportunity to work with other artists as well.
I've been able to interview some of Florida's best artists who use art to deepen our love of these wild landscapes.
In classical mythology, the river sticks divided the world of the living from the underworld.
It provided inspiration for the poets Homer and Dante.
In northwest Florida, its namesake holds a fascination for some present-day artists.
Rivercane is the only native bamboo that grows in Florida and actually North America.
It's very rare to find it large enough to make a flute for them.
The soil has to be extremely fertile.
We found some that day on the river sticks and that was a real gift to see that huge patch of cane on the bank of the river.
I try to get pieces of cane that the inside diameter is about 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch.
I harvest it with a machete or a pocket knife and I keep it on my porch out of the sun and out of the rain and let it cure for several months.
It starts out really green and wet and still alive.
As it cures, it turns this nice mellow tan color.
That's when I know they're ready to make a flute.
I start on the batter end at about 4 or 5 inches from a joint and I cut it off there.
Then I go down or up the cane as it narrows about 18 to 20 inches and I cut it off there.
If it happens to go through a joint, I have to pop that joint out and I drill a hole on either side of that joint.
Then I have to carve these flat pieces that cover the top hole and then focuses the air over the second hole.
That creates the sound.
I start playing it and if the octaves are in tune, you know you've got the starting of a good flute.
I think of my music as you would a landscape.
I usually start out with a long low tone like low strings or some kind of low sound that will indicate the ground or horizon.
The river cane flute gives it this wild element.
To me it's like this little bird that shows up in all my music.
It's a free little being that comes in and it's not quite in tune. It's got a really kind of sound.
I'm always on the lookout for a hollow tree that's fallen down or something that nature has already done a lot of the work for me.
I make drums with hollow logs and I use rawhide for the drum heads, usually elk or buffalo.
During the summertime it would rain in the afternoon around five o'clock by the time it was getting dark.
The storm would have moved away but you could still hear the thunder and the frogs would start up.
I hear these sounds all the time.
I mean you can walk out on the porch and there they are and I just can't help but feel like they need to be in the music too because they were there when I created the music.
This is one of the most unique places in the world. I mean there's nothing like this anywhere.
That's what's so great about this. You can't clean the everglades without cleaning the headwaters.
This is the logical place to start. It was up here.
Get this clean, clean like Okachobi and then clean the conservation area and then you'll have clean water for the everglades.
So it was just a natural thing to do but everybody was concentrated on Everglades National Park.
For some reason they didn't realize you had to work at the headwaters.
And finally that concept has come to reality and it's being fixed.
When I first started taking pictures in 1989 there, there virtually was nothing to photograph.
I mean it was just one big ditch. What are you going to do?
When I came back I mean I had all this great foreground, the grasses that were happening.
We were out in Kosemi. I think this was October. It was full of birds.
I was amazed how many different varieties were there that weren't there ten years ago.
The bird population was great.
To create that feeling that we have now and that beautiful estuation.
It took a lot of cooperation from farmers, ranchers, residents here to work with the conservation and water management and the core to get all this accomplished.
And it was quite a feat to bring people together and be able to do what we've done here.
I really admire what you've done with your photography over the past number of years.
The amount of awareness and appreciation that has been brought for Florida's wetlands, Florida's swamps, the big cypress forest.
I mean a lot of that appreciation can be directly attributed to you being a lens into that world.
I mean it sets a real role model for carifers like me to try to make a difference with that work.
When I discovered Florida and I realized most photographers were shooting birds and gators.
That's what shooting Florida was all about.
Which is fun. It's nice. It's a fun occupation but I felt that people need to know what the landscape was here.
That it is unique in the world and it's absolutely gorgeous.
Well thank you. Oh thank you very much for taking us into your world here and sharing it with us.
Conservation photography simply is photography that empowers conservation.
It seems obvious on the surface but it's kind of a discipline that's just finding its footing.
For years the conservation purpose seems to have been lost in the broader field of nature photography.
Many people are going out to capture images and to create art from nature but not as often connected to using those images for a purpose of achieving conservation.
Kind of interesting because it can be argued that first form of documentary photography was conservation photography.
I know Clyde Butcher always talks about everything in the Everglades as layers and layers like an onion.
And once you leave your car and get out in it you realize how many layers there are.
It's just your eyes widen the more you learn about something.
You know it just becomes more, I don't know, more spectacular.
The more you know about something the more interesting it becomes.
Feeling that connectedness with the landscape is what we need to promote more of.
Where you feel a part of the system.
We already know we literally are. We breathe, we drink clean water, everything.
All these ecosystem services that are provided for us for free.
But yet when you get connected to a certain fraction of the landscape that's when really good things happen.
Our environment influences us, inspires us, changes us.
In this state people are inextricably linked to the land and the sea.
For people who call Florida home this is a place unto itself unlike any other.
[Music]
While doing documentary work an event may happen that you didn't plan for
or you just happen to be there to capture the story.
While I was doing work on the Coastal Dune Lakes documentary,
it was chosen as a site for the 2013 World Paddle for the Planet.
The whole event was about raising awareness of conserving waterways of the world.
This event made a great story.
[Music]
The paddle boarding community has embraced the Coastal Dune Lakes as a great place for their sport.
We found that our area is really one of the best places in the world to paddle board.
Definitely because of the Coastal Dune Lakes.
It forges us a variety of paddles on any given day.
And it also gives us access to the Gulf because there are days where we can leave this boat house
and we can paddle all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico at Greaton Beach.
And it just really, really lends for just a memorable paddle.
In 2013, the headquarters for the annual World Paddle for the Planet event was Lake Powell.
The founder of the event, Bob Purdy, traveled from British Columbia, Canada
to host the global marathon.
There's satellite events going on all over the planet, which is really cool.
We've got the Abu Dhabi, Europe, Australia, South America, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, all over North America.
[Music]
This is such a fitting place for the World Paddle for the Planet because we're raising awareness for waterways
and this is one of the unique ones here in Florida.
In this event, kayakers, canoers, and stand up paddle borders from all over the world paddled for 24 hours.
I invited paddlers around the planet to pick a change, paddle for it,
and then commit to it until it becomes reality.
[Music]
This event in particular symbolizes that we all need to come together as one voice
and get over our individual differences because we're all in this battle together.
[Music]
I've been doing about four laps now, and a lot of it, I've been going by myself
and I've been thinking just that question.
Why am I paddling today?
[Music]
All I have to do is just listen to the water hitting my board,
listen to my paddle going water, and know that what we're paddling for is life.
It's our way of life and for futures to come.
It's important. It's really important.
[Music]
Over my career, one of the more memorable experiences I had was the chance to document a river baptism.
When I sat in the studio later on, I was overcome by how powerful this piece was
and I chose it as a last segment for the Appalachia Cold River film.
[Music]
Geraldine Sheared is a pastor with the Prayer Chainer's Mission of *** in Bluntstown.
They are one of the few remaining groups to perform a traditional river baptism.
We model after John the Baptist in the river of Jordan,
but we always use the natural water from the real water.
We don't want water out of the spigot.
We are tearing for the Holocaust in Pentecostal churches.
We stay there until we speak in another language.
And when you receive the baptism of the Holocaust, the speaking of ***,
the dance of ***, it was a month or so before I actually got a holy dance.
You know, people were laughing at me, they were saying,
I had not gone far enough, did not have the holy goals.
You know, I had cleaned my life up and they said,
"You don't have it yet."
But I prayed and asked ***, "That's not ***."
If you gave anybody else the dance, I won't say anything.
I stayed on the moon and dance, calling on the name of Jesus until the tongues came.
Thank you, Jesus.
Deeper, my home is over, joy of the Lord.
Deeper me, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
What ought you want to go to that gospel feast?
Light upon this land where all is peace.
Deeper you.
I want to cross over into campground.
What the Creator gives you, you belong to keep beautiful and pure.
The apalachicola creeks have since enough to realize
if one part of this world gets out of balance, it throws another part out of balance.
Fussing and fighting doesn't get you anywhere.
But if a bunch of friends can sit down together,
they can come up with a solution that we can all be proud of.
I'm a native Floridian, and when I was growing up in Miami, Florida,
we picked oysters and took them back to the house,
and our relatives and neighbors all joined us
and we would have a great oyster eating party.
For me and for many Floridians, it's part of our culture,
it's part of our family memories.
Florida's quality of life revolves around all of our waterways,
whether it's the river, the beach, the lakes, the swamps, the fishing, the boating,
just the spiritual experience of sitting by the water and its calming effects.
To me, it's as close to *** as you can get being in nature
and seeing what He made for us and that we've been put here on Earth to protect,
and I've chosen a path to protect it.
One of the most powerful statements, I think, of the philosophy of the people that own the forest
and the people that own the farms and what you guys are trying to do to connect those,
if you've ever read "Cross Creek" by Marjorie Rollins in the last chapter of that book,
she talks about who owns the land.
One of the things she says is that if we think we're the owners of the land,
we're deluding ourselves.
The whole thing, you know, was like visiting the Garden of Eden for a 15-year-old boy.
I mean, you know, clouds of birds and alligators lying in every ditch
and snakes and tarp and rolling and the canals adjacent to Tammy Amy Trail.
I mean, how much better does it get?
[music]
It's magic.
You know, it is one of those special places
where when you are out there, you know, your eyes dilate a little bit,
you breathe a little more deeply, and you just have this sense of humbling privilege.
[music]
There's this emotional experience.
Oh, yes, lovely.
Sand, water, weather, rain.
It's essentially part of the reward of being alive and enjoying it all at the same time.
[music]
It's still a cool place, and yet it's 100 years from what I do every day.
And I come here and I can relax.
[music]
When I actually walk out on the beach and look out on the golf,
it hits me that people thousands of years ago saw the same thing that I'm seeing now.
It's the same sight for them, the same colors, same horizon, the same sounds.
[music]
I feel a sense of peace and a sense of freedom.
I love to get out on my paddleboard, particularly in the late afternoon
as the light is changing.
They're just so beautiful.
Nature is so restorative.
I just love to get out there and just to think and reflect and just to enjoy the incredible beauty.
I feel calm, usually when I'm there.
I feel peaceful.
And I think that's really what's special about them being right there on the beach.
You know, the ocean is always moving.
The golf is just moving, moving, moving.
And you can watch that from a body of water that's completely still.
I think that leads to a very introspective, contemplative kind of space.
[music]
I'm not ashamed to say I love that place.
Several of the people that I grew up with and people I came the whole time or so
felt likewise. Some of them were totally uneducated people.
They fought the wars, came back.
They had all kinds of mental stress from being in Korea, World War II, and that was their sanctuary.
They kept them sane.
They said going out there and just getting away.
I call it the Cypress Cathedral.
That's where I find ***.
I feel closest to the Creator is out there.
This old time is just a big sight for swamp.
We call this place over here now the Western Everglades.
[music]
Here, and I'm relaxed, particularly when I'm on the beach or walking along the edge of the lake.
Or out in the canoe, I really feel a much stronger connection to my parents and grandparents
and other ancestors who are no longer walking around on this planet, but are very much a part of my life.
[music]
When people look at the Grand Canyon Niagara Falls, they think, "Oh, those are the spectaculars of nature."
But actually, I think our springs, our rivers, these hardwood forests that we're sitting in the middle of right now,
those are just as spectacular to me as anything you would find in any other part of the country.
I want people to have a feeling about Florida and our conservation lands.
That's where they want to go vacation, do what we're doing.
Get out and walk in these woods.
I think you come to have a great appreciation for the gift that we've been given.
[music]
You know, the ocean was here long before we were here.
It'll be here long after we leave.
We can do a lot to destroy the ecology of the sea.
But we'll never destroy the sea completely.
We'll destroy ourselves before we destroy the sea.
And it'll rebound once we're gone. It'll thrive again.
[music]
And so this balance that has to go on between how we as humans impact the earth that we depend on to live
and that we protect it for future generations is something that is embedded in this concept of connecting up
wildlife corridors and waterways and landscapes because the more that we can connect them up,
the better off we are going to be as a country in advancing a conservation agenda.
And it's not just the United States of America because the whole world watches.
Brazil is watching what we do in conservation, as is Africa, as is Europe.
And so everywhere around the world what we're able to do as we connect up our landscapes is a great example
to all of humanity and to the entire earth.
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And I think anyone who moves to Florida is struck that it's a different place.
It's flat, water flows slower and shallower and more meandering.
I mean it's just a really different place than anywhere else on earth.
South Florida was where my soul is or my spirit rests.
When there's a place that becomes so part of you, like the Kissimmee.
It takes on for me a mystical spiritual sort of a reality in my life.
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The Kissimmee was the test, you know, martyrs don't want to know what's used to say.
This is a test if we pass it, but we get to keep the planet.
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Over my lifetime, I have traveled all throughout the state of Florida,
from the Perdida River to the Dry Tortugas.
I've seen the elusive panther, the wilds of the Everglades,
and the waves of life that are quickly vanishing before our eyes.
As a species, we are a force of nature.
Can we rein in our impulses and conserve that which makes Florida unique and beautiful?
If we are to do so, I believe we must find ways to work together.
The spirit of cooperation shows that we all want to conserve the water we drink.
The air we breathe and the land we love.
Together, we are all stewards of this state.
It's up to us to recognize what we have and cherish it for now and for future generations.
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You